Rice gave the keynote speech at breakfast for about 250 people participating in the WOBM Christmas Classic, a youth basketball tournament, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Rice was fired from Rutgers University last April after videotapes of his practices showed him throwing basketballs at players and using abusive language.

During his speech, Rice told the coaches and players present that he is learning from his mistakes but the process isn't always easy, according to the newspaper.

“That’s hard for anyone, to be honest with you,” Rice said. "I was so successful sometimes you don’t think it’s a weakness. Sometimes you don’t think it’s an issue. But all of the sudden those issues become problems if you don’t attack them.”

The former basketball coach was also humorous at times, telling the audience at a Toms River hotel about his new hobby of reading self-help books, according to the Asbury Park Press.

“As many of you know, I’ve had some free time over the last couple of months,” he said. “and I’ve picked up a new hobby: reading. I don’t know why some of you are laughing. I’m a deep, intellectual human being. Besides the self-help books that I gazed at, my new fascination, my new topic is what makes people elite?”

Afterwards, Rice told the newspaper that he hopes students learn from his transgressions.

“I want to reach out. I want to give back,” he said. “I am a different person now and I want to talk to people about learning from my mistakes and trying to improve yourself. This is a tremendous gathering of student-athletes and I thought it was a good way of doing that.’’

“I think it was great to hear it from coach Rice, a guy who has went through a lot and to see that he’s giving back to the kids is even bettter,” Point Boro head girls basketball coach Dave Drew told the newspaper. “He’s a great coach and had a very important message.”

Rice's speech comes just a few weeks after a 20/20 interview with Robin Roberts during which he said he would like to return to coaching.